We first assessed group differences in BOLD signal during loving kindness meditation. We next used a relatively novel approach, the intrinsic connectivity distribution (ICD) of functional

connectivity, to identify regions that differ in intrinsic connectivity between groups. On the basis of our prior interest in the PCC/PCu, we then used a data-driven approach to seed-based connectivity analysis to identify which connections with this brain region differ between groups during loving kindness. Material and Methods #click here keyword# Participants Twenty experienced meditators (11 men, 9 women, 20 white non-Hispanic, mean age 45.6 years, mean education 17.6 years) and 26 novices (15 men, 11 women, 26 white non-Hispanic, mean age 42.2 years, mean education 17.2 years) took part in the study. Groups were matched by gender (χ2 = 0.03, P = 0.85), age (t = −0.92, P = 0.36), and education Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical (t = −0.36, P = 0.72). Meditators were drawn from the Theravada/insight

meditation tradition, and reported a total of 9675 ± 1586 (mean ± standard error of the mean; standard deviation = 7092) practice hours over 14 ± 2 years, consisting of both daily practice and retreats. Meditators also reported a total of 752 ± 217 practice hours of loving kindness meditation over 9 ± 2 years. All meditators were experienced Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in loving kindness meditation. Novices reported no prior meditation experience. All participants provided written informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and the institutional review board of Yale University. Meditation

instructions Participants Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical were instructed in three standard mindfulness meditation practices: loving kindness, concentration, and choiceless awareness (Gunaratana Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical 2002; Brewer et al. 2011). This analysis is focused only on the loving kindness meditation condition. Loving kindness instructions were: “Please think of a time when you genuinely wished someone well (pause). Using this feeling as a focus, silently wish all beings well, by repeating a few short phrases of your choosing over and over. For example: May all beings be happy, may all beings be healthy, may all beings be safe from harm.” Participants Oxalosuccinic acid were instructed to meditate with their eyes closed. Participants practiced loving kindness meditation outside of the scanner and confirmed that they understood and could follow the instructions. fMRI task Each run began with a 30-sec eyes open baseline. This state was followed by an 8-sec slide reminding participants of the active baseline instructions and a 90-sec active baseline, during which participants viewed words and decided whether or not the words described them, or whether or not the words were in upper case letters, or rested (Kelley et al. 2002). The active baseline task was followed by a 30-sec eyes closed baseline.